Weyburn police officer mourns friend and 'true angel' slain in Fredericton

When he heard the news that two Fredericton police officers had been shot on Friday, a fellow officer living in Saskatchewan knew that he may not have just lost a member of the policing family, but a close friend.

Hours later, when Const. Jeff Bartsch learned that one of the four victims was officer Sara Burns, with whom he'd studied at the Atlantic Police Academy, the news hit him hard.

"She's a very, very hard worker, a very fun-loving mother. She had really beautiful kids," he recalled.

"It just doesn't seem real. It still kind of doesn't. It hasn't really sunk in yet."

Burns and fellow officer Lawrence Robert Costello were responding to the shooting on Friday morning, and were among the first at the scene of the shooting that left two civilians dead. They were shot as they approached, according to Fredericton police.

Police officers know the risks in their line of work, Bartsch said.

"We know it's a dangerous job, and we know what we're getting into. But it's usually the want to help others, and want to serve our community and country that outweighs that," he said.

"There's always a concern every time you leave the house that you may not come home, but you never really think it's going to happen to you or someone you know."

In 2015, Bartsch and Burns spent nine months together training at the academy in Prince Edward Island, and would carpool back and forth with a group of friends from their homes in Fredericton.

Burns would go on to join the Fredericton Police Force in 2016.

Den mother to cadets

Throughout the day Friday, Bartsch's mind went back to old memories of the cadets studying together, of making stops along the journey for dinners at Irving's Big Stop Restaurant in Moncton, or of hitting the books together at a local Starbucks and finally, of their graduation, where they each went their separate ways.

In that time, he got to know Burns as someone who "would do anything for you and had a real true aspiration to be a police officer."

She balanced her workload and studying with her family obligations, with her husband being supportive of her dedication, he recalled.

The academy would choose Burns as a leader among the 44 cadets, and she served the role just like a den mother, "looking out for every one of us there, as if we were her own children," said Bartsch.

"She was a true person, a true angel to look after people."